Tablets are prevalent in various fields including in the pharmaceutical, veterinary and confectionary fields. Tablets can be manufactured in a wide range of sizes. For example, typical disc shaped tablets may have diameters in the range of 5 mm to 20 mm and thicknesses in the range of 3 mm to 10 mm. One particular category of tablets is that of “micro-tablets”, which are named as such due to their relatively small dimensions. For example, disc shaped micro-tablets may have diameters in the range of 2 mm to 3 mm and thicknesses in the range of 0.6 mm to 0.9 mm.
Tablets can be made in a wide variety of cross-section shapes such as circular shapes, diamond shapes, arrow-head shapes and hexagonal shapes. Regardless of the cross sectional shape, many tablets are formed in a generally flattened shape with two opposed sides having typically with significantly larger surface areas than the other sides. Typically, those two larger surfaces have opposed sides are oriented generally parallel to each other. A common example is a generally disc shaped tablet. Despite having sides that may be slightly convex, concave or bevelled with for example bisectional lines, many tablets lend themselves to being packaged into a specifically designed and configured container, and being held in a “stacked” formation within the container with the largest side surfaces of the tablets being adjacent to each other (i.e. the tablets are generally lying flat, one on top of another with their largest surface areas generally facing the largest surface area of an adjacent tablet).
Some containers are referred to as cartridges if the container holding a plurality of tablets is intended to be used in conjunction with a dispensing device, such that loaded tablets can be dispensed from the cartridge by the dispensing device. In many such devices, the stacked orientation can help in preventing jamming.
A plurality of tablets may be loaded into a container that has a generally complimentary cross-sectional area sized and shaped to appropriately receive and hold tablets in a stacked configuration. In the aforementioned example, disc shaped tablets may lend themselves well to being packaged in a stacked formation in a container having at least one longitudinally extending channel or tube that is generally cylindrically shaped. Among other things, such a stacked orientation of a plurality of tablets typically minimizes the space occupied by tablets and allows a maximum number of tablets to be loaded into a given container. Stacking of tablets may also assist in ensuring that a specific and predetermined number of tablets are consistently loaded into and held in each container in a series of containers.
In some known types of systems for packaging tablets, loading of the tablets into the actual container takes place by allowing the tablets to free fall under the influence of gravity into and within a container. The container is generally oriented such that the channel is oriented generally vertically and is held stationary during loading. However, such a loading of tablets within the channel is unpredictable due to the inherently random nature of free fall as tablets fall into these containers. It is far from certain that the tablet will come to rest in a flattened stationary orientation within the channel, such that tablets will be stacked in a flat configuration against adjacent tablets in the container. This unpredictability is even more pronounced with smaller lighter tablets, such as micro-tablets which may be subject to a significant degree of turbulence in free fall and may encounter more electrostatic interaction with the container. Thus, it is quite possible that at the end of the free fall into the container, the tablet will not come to rest in the flat orientation required for stacking.
Accordingly, an improved method and system is desirable which can enhance the chances of properly seating tablets in a stacked orientation during the loading of the container.